The OECD report on the evaluation of the national tobacco control programme in France

In France, tobacco smoking caused 13% of all deaths in 2015 and its consumption is one of the main causes of non-communicable diseases. Therefore, France implemented a significant tobacco control programme from 2016 to 2020, including a 41% increase in taxation of tobacco products, the implementation of plain packages for cigarettes, the full refund of nicotine substitutes and the smoking cessation campaign called #Mois-SansTabac. This programme had a positive effect reducing smoking prevalence by 5 percentage points from 2016 to 2019, with a partial increase during 2020, likely associated to the COronaVIrus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) assessed the health and economic impact of the national tobacco control programme, considering its continuation in the period 2023-2050. The programme would allow to avoid 4 million of new cases of smoking attributable diseases and it would extend healthy life expectancy by 1.5 months per person in the whole French population. Furthermore, it could reduce healthcare spending by €578 million per year, with a return on investment of €4 for every invested euro. These data provide a useful framework for the adoption of measures to end smoking and France ambition is to have the first generation of non-smoking adults by 2032.